The NCAA released updated Academic Progress Rate (APR) data Tuesday, and the Tennessee men's basketball program's multi-year APR score of 973 is its best ever.

In fact, among UT's men's athletic teams, the basketball program's current multi-year APR score trails only tennis, which boasts a 991.

The basketball team's single-year score for 2011-12, which is the most recent academic year to be included in a program's multi-year total, was a 960.

Head coach Cuonzo Martin, who was hired in March of 2011 and just finished his second season at Tennessee, has been at the helm for each of the program's two best multi-year APR scores. The basketball team's single-year APR score of 961 last summer stands as the program's high-water mark.

Among Division I men's basketball programs, Tennessee's current 973 multi-year score ranks in the 80th percentile. The national men's hoops average is 952 (945 for public institutions).

And the program's 2.63 team GPA for the Spring 2013 semester was its best since the data started being recorded in 2003.

The APR, now in its ninth year, measures the eligibility and retention of scholarship student-athletes competing on every Division I athletics team, measuring progress toward degree while also serving as a predictor of graduation success. The most recent APR scores are based on a multi-year rate that averages scores from the most recent four-year period, encompassing the 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years.

The APR is based on each student-athlete having the opportunity to earn two points during each regular academic term of full-time enrollment (e.g., fall semester). One point is awarded if the student-athlete is academically eligible to compete the following regular academic term (or has graduated). The other point is awarded if the student-athlete returns to the institution as a full-time student the next regular academic term or graduates from the university. The APR is calculated by adding all points earned by student-athletes over the past four academic years and dividing that number by the total possible points that could have been earned. That number is then multiplied by 1,000.